Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare Peninsula War Guelphic Medal group of three awarded to Corporal Henry Thiele, 1st Hussars, King’s German Legion

Military General Service 1793-1814, 10 clasps, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, Toulouse (Henry Thiele, 1st Hussars, K.G.L.); Waterloo 1815 (Corporal Henry Thieb (sic), 1st Reg. Hussars K.G.L.); Guelphic Medal for Bravery 1815 (Heinr. Thiele. Corporal dehem 1t. Hus. Regt. K... Gladebeck) officially engraved naming but with some loss from edge bruising, the last two with edge bruising and contact marks, nearly very fine, the first good very fine (3) £4,000-£5,000

Glendining’s, November 1956; Elson Collection 1963.

Guelphic Medal, extract from Guelphic Archives No. 142 of 1818, attested by Major von der Wisch and Captain Teuto:

‘Corporal Henry Thiele, 1st Hussars - was on a foraging party under Lieutenant von der Wisch in the neighbourhood of Santarem, 28th of February 1811, and learned that in a village half a league from thence, was an enemy’s cavalry detachment of twelve men. Lieutenant Wisch, with four hussars, one of whom was Thiele, surprised the enemy. Thiele particularly distinguished himself; he captured alone, two of the enemy’s vedettes who were posted in front of the place, then rushed with the rest into the village, where two men and four mules were taken.
At Quinta de Toro on the 9th of October 1810, during the retreat into the lines, the rear-guard of the 1st Hussars was severely pressed; the horse of Lieutenant Wisch fell, wounded, and the lieutenant himself was only saved from capture, by the sacrifice made by Corporal Thiele, who gave up to him his own horse, and escaped with great difficulty on foot.’